Friday 1 June 2018

The Smoke Thieves by Sally Green: Book Review

The Smoke Thieves (The Smoke Thieves #1) by Sally Green
Publication date: 1 May 2018
Published by: Penguin
Genres: Fantasy, YA

A princess, a traitor, a hunter and a thief. Four teenagers with the fate of the world in their hands. Four nations destined for conflict.

In Brigant, Princess Catherine prepares for a loveless political marriage arranged by her brutal and ambitious father. In Calidor, downtrodden servant March seeks revenge on the prince who betrayed his people. In Pitoria, feckless Edyon steals cheap baubles for cheaper thrills as he drifts from town to town. And in the barren northern territories, thirteen-year-old Tash is running for her life as she plays bait for the gruff demon hunter Gravell.

As alliances shift and shatter, and old certainties are overturned, our four heroes find their past lives transformed and their futures inextricably linked by the unpredictable tides of magic and war. Who will rise and who will fall? And who will claim the ultimate prize?


My Thoughts
For those of you who don't know the Half Bad series by Sally Green is my favourite series and I was so excited for this book. I think part of the problem was that I had expected to love it as much as 'Half Bad' and that is a cruel unrealistic expectation. You shouldn't go into a book expecting it to be as good as your favourite. 

Anyway, I thought the pacing for this book was a bit unusual because you have lots and lots of perspective and you constantly go from one to the other and it could be really tense in one view then super slow in the other. I was also  way more invested in some points of view than others at times I even skip over chapters to read what happens next in a specific characters storyline, though I feel this issue will not occur in the next book.

I think that Sally Green's main talent is her characters and each one was brilliant. I never once got confused as to who was talking which is so impressive given that there were around 5 points of view. Also the slow burn romance or at least what I'm assuming will turn into a romance. There are a few which could potentially happen and I'm here for each of them, though one more than others.

In conclusion, it wasn't as good as her first series but it was only the first book and it's my favourite series of all time so it would have to have been so impressive to match or beat that. I will definitely read on in the series and I'm going to give the book 4 stars. You should definitely go read it.

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